Lock and Key
by Laura Schiller
Summary: A set of drabbles about how each of the characters escape their various prisons ... or not.
1. Chapter 1

Lock and Key

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Little Dorrit

Copyright: Charles Dickens' estate/BBC

1. Amy

She has lived her whole life in a prison, but she never felt like a prisoner until she left it. Once the valued supporter of her family, she became its disgrace. The fierce loyalty which had made her so proud of helping them, now choked her like a hand to her throat whenever Father or Fanny were ashamed of her, unable to speak a word in her own defense. Living for others, her greatest strength, is also her greatest weakness.

Marrying Arthur Clennam is the most selfish thing she's ever done.

She could not be happier.


	2. Chapter 2

2. Arthur

Ironically, it's as an inmate of the Marshalsea that he first learns about freedom. The air may not be good, the walls may feel narrower every day, and the aftermath of his illness may take a long time to subside – but Little Dorrit's voice, her soft hands smoothing a wet towel over his forehead, and her hopeful little smile, make him feel lighter, less burdened, than ever in his life.

As for his birth mother's letter, it's enough to turn his cell as boundless as the universe.


	3. Chapter 3

Mr. Merdle

He has always been a well-organized man, from his business transactions (both legal and illegal) to his social life. Therefore, now that he has decided to die, he is resolved to do everything in order: fold his clothes, take laudanum, leave a note for his physician. Any other message would be pointless, after all. The parrot cannot read, and no one else will miss him.

How ironic that, today of all days, his penknife is missing.

Fanny's is white. White for innocence. Even through the haze of alcohol, he frowns.

"You haven't got one with … a darker handle, by any chance?"


	4. Chapter 4

Mr. Dorrit

"Take my gold watch to the pawnbroker … see what you can raise on it. I won't let you starve."

For twenty-two years, he has been trapped in his own illusions. Once a prisoner who imagined himself a gentleman, he is now a rich man who imagines himself in prison. For the Father of the Marshalsea, chained to his own pride like Prometheus to the cliff, there is not much difference between the two.

During both lives, his youngest daughter's love has been his only link to reality.

"Good girl … dear girl," are his dying words.


	5. Chapter 5

5. Mrs. Clennam

For a proud, strong woman, the loss of her legs was the worst punishment she could have endured - which only confirmed her in her belief that it came from God. She embraced the pain like a martyr, knowing she deserved every moment of it, waiting for the little actress' heartbroken blue eyes (Arthur's eyes) to stop haunting her dreams.

But Blandois' threat is unacceptable. Her boy – her son in all but blood, so stubbornly, impossibly loving – must never know the truth. She is not strong enough to lose him too.

Punishment be damned. She will not stay in this detested chair a moment longer.


	6. Chapter 6

6. Flora

The problem with reality, according to her, is that it persists in interrupting what might otherwise be a very pleasant life.

It tugs at her sleeve with the gnarled hands of Mr. F's aunt, stares at her with the politely distant look on Arthur's face, and giggles at her from the mirror, where her reflection – which she _knows_ is young and lovely – inexplicably turns into a hog in pink satin.

But reality is a monster they all must face, and if Arthur can do it with such dignity, why can't she?

"I wonder if, after all, it wasn't just nonsense between us."


	7. Chapter 7

Pet

"You don't find me fascinating?"

"I find you perfect, my love," Henry drawls, not even looking away from his half-finished painting.

Moments like this combine, like little chips of ice into a hailstorm, and little by little it dawns on her exactly whom she has married. She sees the hollowness beneath that sparkling surface, the disappointment at losing what he never tried to earn. His utter indifference – to his work, his family, to _her_ – is the most terrifying thing she's ever seen.

When their child is born, will he ignore that, too?

_Oh Mama, Papa … Mr. Clennam. What have I done?_


	8. Chapter 8

Flintwinch

Mrs. Clennam is damned clever, no denying it. Still, it galls him to be always taking orders from a woman – a crippled one, no less. He feels the need to snap at Affery more and more often, just to prove he has some power in this house.

The day Mrs. Clennam gives an order he knows is wrong – to burn the papers – is the day he's been waiting for. It's almost worth his brother's disappearance (must have run away, the coward) to have Blandois finally dragging the old lady's secret out into the open.

Unlike Blandois, however, he knows better than to stay.


	9. Chapter 9

Affery

They told her she was dreaming. They told her she was mad. How many nights has she spent with her apron over her face, rocking back and forth, praying for the nightmares to go away?

But she is not dreaming, and she is not mad. There _is_ a secret in this house – a secret about Arthur, the only source of peace and sanity she has left. The Frenchman knows it, Jeremiah knows it, and even Mrs. Clennam is afraid.

"I'll stay here and learn what I don't know, if I was to be burned to death for it! I will!"


	10. Chapter 10

Pancks

Casby's callous indifference to Mr. Clennam's ruin is the last straw. He cannot work for such a man one moment longer.

He's been a grubber all his life, but he's more than that – he's a man. He's tried to see the people of Bleeding Heart Yard as nothing but numbers in an account-book, but they are more than that – they are his friends. They have all been victims together. It stops here.

One impromptu shaving session later, he slaps the hair-clogged scissors into his master's hand to thunderous applause.

"Please to accept my resignation, Mr. Casby."


	11. Chapter 11

11. Harriet

She once believed there could be no worse fate for her than a lifetime in Pet Meagles' shadow. She was wrong.

The Meagleses wanted her hands and feet to fetch and carry, her face to look pleasant, her words to be polite. Miss Wade demands all of her, body, mind and soul. The Meagleses tried to extinguish her inner fire; Miss Wade fuels it, feeds it, until it blazes with a violence she fears will consume everything – including herself.

Worst of all, Miss Wade calls her by her Christian name. This mockery of freedom is what she simply cannot bear.

Let them command Tattycoram as they please – so long as Harriet is free.


	12. Chapter 12

Fanny

"Good _gracious_, this is past all patience!"

No curse could have been snarled with more ferocity as this wildcat in mourning clothes prowls across her salon. The suffocating layers of silk and velvet, the bird cackling in its cage, and her idiot husband standing there with his mouth open, are enough to make her want to claw her own eyes out.

But she chose this. What else could she have done – gone back to that dingy theatre to flash her calves at the audience? Submitted to Mrs. General and Mrs. Merdle?

If she must live in a cage, it had damned well better be gilded. And with that in mind, she greets her father-in-law's arrival with the sweetest possible purr.


	13. Chapter 13

13. Sparkler

He does not know when it began to dawn on him that his adorable wife does, in fact, have some nonsense about her.

Perhaps it was the way she shoved her wedding bouquet into his hands in order to lift her own veil. Perhaps the way her voice changes, from a lively street drawl to the glass-smooth tones of his Mater, depending on who is with her. Or perhaps it was the pity in Miss Amy's eyes.

But the veil is off now, and the knot is tied. Too late to undo it, even for a cleverer man than himself.

"Sparkler," she says. "Be quiet."

He obeys.


End file.
